Remembering SPC Jeremy Regnier ~ NH Hero
Remembering SPC Jeremy Regnier 22, of Littleton, N.H.; KIA on Oct. 13, 2004 when an improvised explosive device detonated near his patrol in Baghdad; assigned to the 4th Battalion, 5th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas; Jeremy hoped to become a helicopter mechanic and spend a career in the Army.
Jeremy called home weekly and had just celebrated his birthday in Littleton in August while home on a two-week leave. Jeremy joined the military in 2000, serving about six months in the New Hampshire Army National Guard before choosing to switch to active duty. He served a tour in Korea before going to Iraq. He had hoped to become a helicopter mechanic and spend a career in the Army. Relatives said his first deployment changed him.
He would give you the shirt off his back he would do anything for anybody. Jeremy always told his family not to worry. Generations of his family have safely returned from wars, including his great-grandfather Wilford Regnier (WWI), grandfather Edgar Regnier and great uncle Richard Regnier (WWII) and his father Kevin from Grenada.
Jeremy was told his family, “Every Regnier that goes to war comes back. I know I’ll be back.” He had a skull wearing an Army helmet tattooed on one arm as a sign of his commitment to the military.
TO REMEMBER IS TO HONOR…
Remembering CPL Scott G. Dimond ~ NH Hero
Remembering CPL Scott G. Dimond. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 172nd Infantry Regiment (Mountain), New Hampshire National Guard. Scott was KIA on Oct. 13, 2008, in Kandahar, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when his vehicle struck an improvised explosive device and his patrol was engaged in a small-arms fire attack.
He was a lifelong resident of Franklin and a graduate of Franklin High School, Class of 1987, where he participated in the football and track and field programs. He continued his interest in football after graduation, coaching the Franklin Pop Warner team.
Scott enlisted in the Marine Corps in his senior year of high school. He was medically discharged as a result of a serious football injury. Scott decided he would still serve our citizens, but in a different capacity when he began his law enforcement career in 1988 with the Franklin Police Department, retiring as a sergeant after 18 years of service.
He enlisted in the New Hampshire National Guard in 2006 while he worked on his nursing degree, looking forward to helping others in the health-care profession. Scott was a member of the Military Forces Honor Guard, traveling statewide, honoring those who served.
Scott, was 39-year-old and the father of four. He was traveling in a military convoy that came under attack near the city of Lashkar Gah , in southern Afghanistan . His unit deployed in January and was an embedded tactical training team with the Afghan National Army and police force. He had also been working full time in the Guard Honors Team, a Franklin-based ceremonial unit that travels statewide to honor soldiers killed in action.
He was a police officer in Franklin from 1988 to 2006. Former Franklin police chief Doug Boyd, hired Dimond. “He’s one of those guys, you wish you had five of them,” Boyd said. “He had a lot on the ball. He wanted to do a law enforcement career, and he wanted to do it in the town he grew up in.”
Jim Ryba, a retired Franklin police lieutenant, added that Dimond helped modernize the city’s police force. “We were just getting on board with computers back then,” Ryba said, “and he was instrumental in that.”
Dimond joined the Army National Guard after retiring from the force in 2006. He was part of C Company, 3rd of the 172nd Mountain Infantry Regiment.
Richard Fredette of Webster is a retired sergeant major in the Guard and the current director of the honors team. He said Dimond joined the Guard at an age far older than the norm. “Kids come in at 17, and Scott came to us when he was probably 36,” Fredette said. “There are kids right out of high school. It’s something Scott wanted. He was a career police officer in Franklin and decided he wanted to do his part with the military.” Dimond outdid other guardsmen during rigorous training, despite being more than twice the age of many recruits, according to Fredette. “He was a stellar performer in training,” Fredette said. “He got right out there with those 17-year-old kids, and he surpassed them in many situations, physically and with basic soldiering. He had a strong desire to be a member of the military, and he proved himself.”
After training, in the spring of 2007, Dimond asked Fredette if he could join his outfit, a full-time job. The honors team pays tribute to veterans of all wars at their funerals. Fredette said teams of three – two who fold the American flag and present it to the family, one who plays taps – travel nearly every day of the week for military funerals. He and Dimond, who folded the flag, worked together often.
“He’s been there with me many times as we’ve gone to the aircraft to bring our soldiers home from Afghanistan and Iraq ,” Fredette said. “We’re about ready to go get him. When they call us, we’re going to go to the airport and go pick Scott up.”
